The growing reliance on digital services has led to an escalation in cyber risks and attacks targeting banks and financial institutions. Such cyber threats necessitate innovative solutions. But to achieve it, one needs to overcome the challenges of seeking reliable information on utilizing blockchain technology to combat cyber-attacks. Hence, this work aims to use a systematic literature review to study the potential of blockchain technology to mitigate cyber threats in the banking and financial sector as well as the advantages and challenges of blockchain technology. Blockchain provides heightened security, improv transaction processes, ensures transparency and privacy, optimizes operational performance, and reduces fraud. Despite its advantages, challenges like regulatory compliance, privacy concerns, and scalability need careful consideration. Prominent institutions like Bank of America, HSBC, and J.P. Morgan are actively investigating blockchain integration. To ensure wise choices regarding blockchain use in organizations with valuable data and assets, advisors and business leaders must fully grasp both the advantages and possible drawbacks of this technology. Armed with this information, financial institutions gain essential insights, steering them towards judicious choices concerning the integration and utilization of blockchain technology, thereby enhancing, and reinforcing their cybersecurity framework. / Den ökande användningen av digitala tjänster har resulterat i en ökning av cyberrisker och attacker riktade mot banker och finansinstitutioner. Cyberhot fortsätter att utmana säkerheten för finansiella institutioner, vilket kräver nyskapande lösningar. För att uppnå det måste man övervinna utmaningarna med att söka tillförlitlig information angående användningen av blockkedja teknik för att bekämpa cyberattacker. Därför syftar detta verk till att använda systematisk litteraturgenomgång för att utforska potentialen hos blockkedjeteknik för att mildra cyberhot inom bank- och finanssektorn, samt för- och nackdelar med teknologin. Blockkedja teknik erbjuder förhöjd säkerhet, optimerar transaktionsprocessen, säkerställer transparens och integritet, ökar operativ prestanda och minskar risken för bedrägeri. Trots dessa fördelar måste utmaningar som regeluppfyllelse, integritetsfrågor och skalbarhet hanteras med omsorg. Framstående institutioner som Bank of America, HSBC och J.P. Morgan undersöker aktivt integration av blockkedja teknik. För att säkerställa kloka beslut kring blockkedjeanvändning i organisationer med viktig information och tillgångar är det avgörande att rådgivare och företagsledare har en djup förståelse för både fördelar och möjliga nackdelar med teknologin. Med denna insikt i ryggen får finansinstitutioner värdefull vägledning när det gäller integration och användning av blockkedjeteknik, vilket stärker och förbättrar deras ramverk för cybersäkerhet.

In the thesis we perform analysis of systemic risk in the financial and energy sector in Europe. As the econometric tool for estimating dependencies across the subjects we employ factor copula model with GAS dynamics of Oh & Patton (2013b). We apply this model to daily CDS spreads. Based on the estimated results we perform Monte Carlo simulations in order to obtain future values of CDS spreads and measure probability of systemic events. We conclude that substantially higher systemic risk is present within the financial sector. We also find that the most systemic companies from both sectors come from Spain. JEL Classification C53, C55, C58, G17 Keywords Credit Default Swap, Energy Sector, Factor Copula, Financial Sector, Generalized Autore- gressive Score Model, Systemic Risk Author's e-mail matej.nevrla@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail barunik@fsv.cuni.cz

Au cours des deux dernières décennies, des autorités chargées de la régulation de secteurs aussi divers que l'énergie, les postes, les communications électroniques, les transports, la banque, l'assurance et les valeurs mobilières se sont multipliées aussi bien à l'échelle nationale qu'à l'échelle de l'Union européenne. Contraint par le droit dérivé, ou libre, à des fins d'impartialité et de crédibilité, ce mouvement européen de création des autorités de régulation n'est toutefois pas sans poser un certain nombre de difficultés. Qu'il s'agisse de la structure des autorités, de l'étendue de leurs pouvoirs, de leur degré d'indépendance ou de leur quête de légitimité, les solutions retenues pour institutionnaliser la régulation varient fortement d'un Etat à l'autre, cette diversité nuisant grandement à l'unité de cette catégorie juridique. Malgré l'absence de régime uniforme, des finalités communes animent pourtant ces autorités : encadrer, contrôler, sécuriser et protéger. Au regard des différentes expériences nationales et européennes, cet état de fait amène alors à s'interroger sur la possibilité et l'opportunité de construire un modèle d'autorité de régulation dans les secteurs des services publics en réseaux et des finances dont les Etats et l'Union européenne pourraient s'inspirer / Over the past two decades, the authorities in charge of the regulation of sectors as diverse as Energy, Postal services, Electronic communications, Transports, Banking, Insurance and Securities have increased on a national level as well as on an European level. Imposed by Legislation, or free, in order to obtain impartiality and credibility, this European movement of creation of regulators can face some difficulties. Whatever the structure of these authorities, the extent of their powers, their degree of independence or their quest for Legitimacy, the solutions adopted to institutionalise regulation vary widely from a State to another, this diversity greatly affects the unity of this legal category. However and despite the absence of any harmonised framework, a common purpose animates these authorities which is to supervise, monitor, secure and protect. Due to different national and European experiences, this established fact raises issues about the possibility and also the opportunity of building a regulatory authority model in network utilities and in financial sectors that could guide the States as well as the European Union

Orientador: Carlos Eduardo Ferreira de Carvalho / Resumo: Esta dissertação tem como objetivo analisar a trajetória da política de informática brasileira no final do século XX. O estudo identifica os atores centrais no processo de tomada de decisão e explora as razões da ascensão e queda da indústria nacional de computadores. O objetivo cen-tral é entender os fatores que levaram à crise e à mudança no caminho da informática brasilei-ra através do enfoque sobre o papel dos segmentos financeiros no final da década de 1980. Através da reconstrução histórica, o estudo correlaciona três grandes eixos analíticos: (i) res-trições estruturais da economia mundial; (ii) dinâmica política interna em relação às pressões internacionais; e (iii) implicações políticas geradas pela redefinição das preferências do setor financeiro nacional no setor de informática. Em conclusão, foram apresentados os resultados do processo para o posicionamento do Brasil na economia mundial no limiar do século XXI. / Abstract: This dissertation aims to analyze the trajectory of Brazilian informatics policy during the late twentieth century. The study identifies central actors in the decision making process and explores the reasons for the rise and fall of the national computer industry. The central objective is to understand the factors that led to the crisis and the change in the Brazilian informatics path by focusing on the role of financial entrepreneurs in the late 1980s. Through historical reconstruction, the study correlates three major analytical axes: (i) structural constraints of the world economy; (ii) domestic political dynamics towards international pressures; and (iii) the political implications generated by the redefinition of national financial sector preferences in the informatics sector. In conclusion, the results for the positioning of Brazil in the world economy at the threshold of the 21st century were presented. / Resumen: Esta tesis objetiva analizar la trayectoria de la política de informática brasileña a finales del siglo XX. El estudio identifica a los actores centrales en el proceso de toma de decisiones y explora las razones del auge y la caída de la industria nacional de la computación. El objetivo central es comprender los factores que llevaron a la crisis y el cambio en el camino de la informática brasileña centrándose en el papel de los empresarios financieros a fines de los años ochenta. A través de la reconstrucción histórica, el estudio correlaciona tres ejes analíticos principales: (i) limitaciones estructurales de la economía mundial; (ii) dinámica política doméstica hacia presiones internacionales; y (iii) las implicaciones políticas generadas por la redefinición de las preferencias del sector financiero nacional en el sector de informática. En conclusión, se presentaron los resultados del posicionamiento de Brasil en la economía mundial en el umbral del siglo XXI. / Mestre

Since 1989, there has been a period of rapid change of the economies of the former Eastern bloc. Within a few years, the majority of the formerly centrally administered economies had begun restructuring their economic systems, including the privatisation. of formerly state-owned enterprises. This process developed differently in different countries, depending among other things on their historical traditions and the momentum of their social, political and economic transformations. This doctoral dissertation examines the privatisation of large-scale industrial enterprises in Slovakia prior to 1997. In particular the thesis analyses the changing political and institutional framework governing the process and method of privatisation; and how the governance of firms was affected by the new markets and ownership- and control-structures that were established. Special attention is paid to the role played by investment funds andinvestment-companies established as a consequence of voucher privatisation. The research problem is approached both from an aggregate national level and from the enterprise level. The thesis includes a number of case studies of enterprises in Slovakia that underwent privatisation, and of investment funds that emerged to take part in the process. In addition, two panel-data sets were constructed for the sake of statistical analysis. The study points to the drastic changes in privatisation policy and its enactment, under different governments. It leads to the conclusion that privatisation is a highly political process, whose economic effects cannot be separated from its distributional effects. This politicised nature of ownership reform is shown to have some negative side-effects with regard to the development of well-functioning governance structures. It is, for example, pointed to that the capital market, as it developed during the period of study, was highly non-transparent,characterised by high transaction costs and insider-trading. The study also documents an increasingly concentrated ownership structure of the Slovak industry and relates it to the changes in privatisation policy. In the final analysis attention is drawn to a recurring theme in the study, namely the issues related to the relative stability and durability of the institutional set-up. In many cases an insecurity about "the rules of the game" led to short-term incentives and opportunism on behalf of the economic and political agents.

In questa tesi si sostiene che il meccanismo di trasmissione della politica monetaria nasconde un canale di trasmissione del rischio, e che una politica monetaria espansiva non solo aumenta l’offerta di credito ma anche la propensione delle banche a prendere rischio. I modelli macroeconomici esistenti non sono adatti ad identificare questo meccahismo, visto che o non incorporano un settore bancario, oppure si concentrano sull’amplificazione finanziaria dopo una crisi piuttosto che sulla presa del rischio prima delle crisi. La tesi propone un semplice modello in cui il rischio di credito e di insolvenza e’ modellato endogenamente. Il modello mostra l’esistenza di un trade-off tra quantita’ e qualita’ del credito, il che puo’ avere importanti ripercussioni per la gestione della politica monetaria. Successivamente, la tesi sviluppa un paper empirico e di policy che studia la leva finanziaria delle banche. Si sostiene che le misure tradizionali della leva non possono mostrare un importante peggioramento della qualita’ del capitale delle banche prima della crisi del 2007. Si mostra che la qualita’ di tale capitale e’ progressivamente peggiorata prima della crisi, in particolar modo per le banche commerciali. Viene proposta una misura alternativa della leva finanziaria. / This dissertation argues that the transmission mechanism of monetary policy hides a risk taking channel, as loose monetary policy not only increases credit supply but also increases the propensity of banks to take risks. The existing macroeconomic models are ill-designed to identify the forces of this mechanism, as these models either do not have an explicit banking sector, or they focus on ex-post amplification mechanism rather than ex-ante bank risk taking. A simple model is developed, where credit and solvency risk is determined endogenously. The model shows that a trade-off exists between credit quality and credit quantity, and this trade off impacts on the effectiveness of monetary policy. Subsequently, the dissertation develops an empirical, policy paper that investigates banks leverage ratios. It is argued that traditional measures of leverage cannot detect an important decline in bank capital quality before the 2007 crisis. The dissertation shows that capital quality has declined progressively before the 2007 crisis, particularly for commercial banks. A new leverage ratio is proposed.

The earlier theories considered trade credit as a substitute for bank credit. Recent theories suggest that bank credit and trade credit can also be considered as two complementary sources of financing. By using South African panel data from 2007 to 2015, the study examines if the problem of financial inclusion in South Africa can be mitigated by utilising trade credit data. The empirical findings using trade credit at current period are consistent with the earlier theories of trade credit that trade credit and bank credit are substitutes, but the model was not robust to estimation techniques. The study also used the lagged trade credit as a variable of interest and found that it is positively related to bank credit. This means that the trade credit data from the previous period can facilitate access to bank credit. Therefore, the information from trade credit can serve as a signal about firms’ quality and thus facilitates access to bank finance. / Economics / M. Com (Economics)

Microfinance relates to the provision, by specialized microfinance institutions (MFIs), of small-scale financial services - such as credit, savings, and insurance - to the poorer sections of the population. These sections have traditionally been excluded by the financial system. Microfinance is viewed as a system put into place in order to overcome market failures that are created by banks and that are omnipresent in the developing world. In development policy, microfinance has received considerable attention during the last twenty years, and the industry has grown substantially. Interestingly, the sector has been more successful in reaching out to people in some countries than in others. The sector has also developed in an unequal way within countries. The reasons why this happened are not directly apparent. This doctoral dissertation addresses the uneven development of the microfinance sector and aims at identifying factors that explain it.<p><p>The dissertation consists of three main parts. The first part, which consists of two papers, combines different datasets on the outreach of MFIs to assess in which countries MFIs have developed most. The papers indicate that the microfinance sector is more present in the richer countries of the developing world. It also reaches more clients in countries that receive more international aid. Population density also plays a stimulating role, which partially explains why the sector is still underdeveloped in rural areas.<p><p>The second part of the dissertation, which exists of one paper, explores in more depth the relationship between traditional financial sector development and microfinance institutions. The paper, co-authored with Bert D’Espallier, shows that MFIs reach more clients and are more profitable in countries where access to the traditional financial system is low. This is in line with the market-failure hypothesis. Along the same line, we find that MFIs serve poorer people in countries with well-developed financial systems. This observation is an important element to take into account in the debate on mission drift of the sector, where it is feared that MFIs drift away from serving the poor. The paper shows that MFIs in countries with well-developed banking sectors have less space to move up market and consequently to drift from the sector’s general mission.<p><p>The third and final part of the dissertation is a quantitative study on the spread and expansion process of MFIs in one Latin American country, Peru. The roles that district characteristics play in the decision to open an MFI branch are scrutinized. The paper finds that MFIs mainly increase financial access in districts with higher levels of development. Districts where banks are already present also have a higher probability that MFIs will open a branch there. This demonstrates that the two kinds of institutions co-exist in several districts, but most probably serve another clientele. Overall, although strategies differ between different types of Peruvian MFIs, the paper finds that they do not seem to be driven by a pure developmental logic that would push them towards the poorest or totally unbanked regions of the country. <p><p>On the whole, the main conclusions of the dissertation can be summarized as follows. First, the dissertation demonstrates that the outreach of the microfinance sector is influenced by a number of macro factors. Consequently, country-specific and macro-economic factors should be taken into account when evaluating MFI performance. Second, the dissertation shows that MFIs substitute the traditional banking sector. MFIs thus fulfill an important part of their mission, i.e. they have helped to increase financial access in the developing world. However, the study also suggests that MFIs still fail to serve a significant number of poor people. This leads to a third important observation, namely that MFIs may in fact not strive to serve the poor as such. Rather, it seems that they are currently focusing on the un-served market in general. The observation indicates that there is a need for a more thorough investigation on the issue of whom the unbanked in the developing countries are and whom MFIs actually strive to serve. Finally, since the outreach and performance of MFIs is dependent on the presence of a stimulating macro-environment, it remains a challenge to serve the financially excluded in the more remote areas of the developing countries and the people in the poorest ones. <p><p><p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The diploma thesis deals with the occurence of price bubbles in the real estate markets and with the consequences resulting from their existence for the monetary policy authorities and for the macroprudential supervision. At first, the nature of price bubbles, the circumstances of their occurence and downfall and the possibilities of their identification are explained, while they are divided into rational and irrational bubbles. This is followed by the characteristics of the real estate market, by a description of its operation and by assessment of its specifics compared to the markets of other assets, while the real estate market is characterized by several market imperfections which constantly prevent it from heading to the equilibrium. Next part of the thesis refers to the analysis of the potential price bubble in the current Czech real estate market, separately for both the residential and the commercial segment of the market. Attention is paid to the central bank's response to current developments. In the last part, the thesis focuses on the implications of the impact of price bubbles on the real estate markets for the central banks' monetary policy and for macroprudential supervision authorities. The thesis also discusses the importance of asset prices in the context of inflation targeting and the importance of the role of real estate markets in systemic financial crises.

This is a study about digital maturity within the financial sector. Specifically, this paper delves into what factors are perceived to have an effect on the digital maturity of the organizations within the sector. Furthermore, the study also examines whether the covid-19 pandemic is perceived to have changed any of these factors or any of the aspects of digital maturity. This will be evaluated through a thematic analysis of the data collected via a series of semi-structured interviews. The respondents who have been interviewed are all employed within the financial sector and have been employed throughout the pandemic. To analyze the collected data, two digital maturity models have been deployed to assess which factors have an effect on the digital maturity levels of the organizations in question. The results indicate that there are several factors influencing the digital maturity of the financial sector. Digital competence is perceived to have a positive effect in terms of how it affects the digital maturity levels, while dated systems and old ways of working appear to have a substantial negative effect on the digital maturity levels. The leadership and vision of the organizations appear to have a negative as well as a positive effect. The study also concludes that the perceived pressure from outside of the organization to digitize their operations might be a bigger factor than what previous research has indicated. While the covid-19 pandemic is perceived by the respondents to have had some effect on the digital ventures of the organization, none of the respondents perceived that the pandemic had been a major factor in regard to their digital transformation. Rather the digitalization of the organization’s ventures had been on-going before the pandemic, and the pandemic was therefore seen as an indicator that the organization needed to continue their work to digitize their processes.